Any tips on spicing up an ocean voyage and/or battle?

[ConnorSB]

As the opening to my new campain, the players are passengers on a ship voyaging from my worlds equivelent of spain (except its full of elves), to my worlds equivelent of london. Its a renessance, swashbuckling kind of campain, and I really need ways to make the voyage interesting. Its only gonna be one session long, but... cool stuff should happen.

The only thing that I have worked out is that an old man who is traveling with them needs to die.

Invariably, someone is going to mention pirates, and so in addition to any cool tips you may have about running sea voyages, any tips you may have about running sea battles would be great too.

Thanks a bunch,
Connor

 

[Castellan]

Just a couple of quick ideas:

1: Man Overboard! Whenever you have a relatively "straightforaward" pirate encounter, spice it up by having an important NPC fall overboard. Your players might not think much of this ("Awww, we'll come back and get him later...") but you should impress on them how falling overboard was considered a near death-sentence back in the days of wind-driven vessels -- loooong time for a ship to "come about", and ships rely on sails and sweeps (oars) for locomotion, so if you don't get someone quick, you can't be guaranteed they'll be there when you come back (this is particularly useful if your party doesn't have access to fly spells, yet, but can be an added level of difficulty in any encounter). Make sure the party doesn't forget there's a battle going on.

If the individual falling overboard has armor on, thos swim checks are going to be rough, and if there are sharks (or dire sharks), evil porpoises, or other unpleasant things in the water, that makes the sense of urgency even greater!

2: Attack from the air. Sure, this encounter is done (often overdone) on land, but your PCs are likely to be looking for something to attack from on or under the sea. They'll probably have a lot of water-based spells readied, and be looking to use their seafaring tactics. Hit them with something from the air like a wyvern or a young dragon. If the PCs are lower level than that, have them pass a floating shipwreck and/or sargasso sea that is infested with stirges or stirge-like creatures (maybe make them like flying fish). Let the stirges attack. This might be a great time to use #1 above, since someone might fall overboard while trying to beat one of them off.

Hopefully that's a little helpful!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Mutinies can make things interesting if the PCs aren't too much higher in level than the crew. They choose either to sign with the captain or the rebels.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Ethereal Filchers!

-Hyp.

 

[Silver Moon]

Does the ship anchor at night or sail on? In a D&D world both present certain dangers since D&D worlds have nasty humanoid creatures living beneath the sea who prey on ships, especially those not traveling in a fleet. Anchoring makes the ship a stationary target, but also allows for more control of the situation and easier lookouts, plus they can anchor in known "safe" areas. Moving by night makes it far easier to run afowl of an enemy patrol or army and the reduced visibility due to darkness gives the enemy a major advantage for surprise attack.

 

[MarauderX]

Some quickies....

1. Mermaids guide the ship through murky waters and/or 'entertain' the bored sailors

2. Sharks (or other natural nasty) begin to trail the ship ominously, scaring other fish away from being caught for dinner. Once in a while a shark will glide alongside the ship, and uses some hypnotic gaze that makes the sailor fall off the ship so they can enjoy him for lunch.

3. Weather is always important when travelling by sea, so work up a chart of which days it rains, are sunny, stormy, etc. so when you have a skirmish you can give pluses/minuses for slippery decks, sight, travel speed, whatever.

4. No one said it yet... so... Harpies. But make it interesting by having the crew or captain affected and not the PCs. They will have to win over the crew in order to prevent the ship from be wrecked on a rocky shoreline.

5. A small lifeboat full of dead, emaciated bodies floats by with the name of a famous ship on it's side...

6. Fog mysteriously rolls in before some aqua critters launch a raid on the ship. There are about 5-6 different water races in the MM, pick one and run with it.

7. Something slams into the boat in the middle of the night, ripping a hole in the ship big enough to sink the ship slowly unless repaired. It should take a majority of the crew and/or PCs to assist patching the hole, but meanwhile the critter can be seen turning around to make another pass - the PCs gotta deter it somehow (bright light, loud underwater sound, damage) before it can rip more holes in the ship.

 

[Dr. Niles Crane]

4. No one said it yet... so... Harpies. But make it interesting by having the crew or captain affected and not the PCs.

Looks like I was one post too late! I've actually used this in two different campaigns with the party waking up in the middle of the night during a storm as the ship heads straight toward land and Harpies sing and scoop the crew off the deck. Once the party was too slow and the ship crashed (one character who was dropped on shore was nearly hit by the boat!); another time they managed to drop anchor and save the ship in the nick of time. Depending on the party's level, there are some variations you can do on this (such as a Harpy Bard) plus either a small or large Harpy lair on the coast, if you want to expand the encounter somewhat.

 

[eryndel]

Some of the most interesting sea voyages I've had in a game have been where the nature was out to get the ship. Historically the big allure and fear of sea travel was the capriciousness of the weather. I was in a game about six months ago that had a one session long voyage from Delis to Rahoch in the scarred lands, about a 10 day voyage. We had a period of lull where everyone (PCs included) needed to help with the oars. Later a storm pulled through and the mast wouldn't completely unfurl so we almost lost the mast if it wasn't for some heroics by the PCs. That same storm saw a crew member go overboard, and a PC (evil no less) went in and saved him. There was also a lot of interesting roleplaying between the crew and the PCs (interesting since the crew were all members of a cult). It was a pivotal game for character development for the campaign.

Werner

 

[demiurge1138]

How about a sea serpent or kraken who demands tribute from sailors passing through its waters?

Or an old classic, the ship encounters an island that's actually a whale/zaratan/Gamera.

Weather is always good. A storm can help liven up an encounter, especially when rough winds can blow them off course (and to another encounter).

Ghost ships are fun, but in the wake of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, maybe overexposed.

Demiurge out.

 

[bloodymage]

you should impress on them how falling overboard was considered a near death-sentence back in the days of wind-driven vessels

Ahem, this is a little erroneous. Not that it's not true, but if one falls overboard on a modern-day vessel in broad daylight in calm seas, there's less than a 10% chance of finding the victim. Most overboards actually fall into the more normal 3% window. And if it's nighttime, forget it! Those poor souls are almost never recovered. Falling overboard is hardly any more survivable today than it was in the Age of Discovery.